"When you married Aiden, didn't you know anything about the Atmajaya Family?" Tara asked curiously.
Anya was silent when she heard that question. Aiden knew everything about her, but what did she know about Aiden?
"When we got married, he knew everything about me. I was only able to learn about him after the wedding and I don't know much about his family." Anya answered.
"I know you didn't marry Aiden out of your own will. But how can you want to marry a man like Aiden? That guy was cold and scary. Every time I took care of him, I was afraid he would throw me out of the window because of his bad temper. All men are jerks!"
Tara did agree to meet Anya. But whether Anya wanted to forgive Aiden or not was not her decision to make.
"Let's just toast and drink," Tara raised her glass and toast it to Anya's glass. Anya immediately drank her glass and finished it all at once.
"Let's drink as much as we want. I'm not going back to that place again!" Anya filled her empty glass with beer and closed her eyes.
Her stomach felt hot from the beer, but her heart ached even more.
She took the food from the table and handed it to Tara. "Eat, it's my treat today."
Tara took Anya's gift while shaking her head seeing her friend's current condition.
From behind, Nico suddenly came over to them. Without saying anything, he invited himself to sit with Anya and Tara, and immediately took their food.
Anya ignored Nico's arrival. She continued to drink her drink and refill it.
After three glasses, she felt that her head was a little dizzy. Her stomach also felt bad. However, when she saw Nico as a member of the Atmajaya Family, her heart ached again.
She slammed her glass on the table and yelled at Nico. "Who told you to sit here?"
Nico was surprised to hear Anya's scream. The woman in front of him didn't look like the usual Anya.
Usually, Anya was always friendly to him. She was also very warm and cheerful, so she often teased Nico. Never once had Anya acted like this to him.
"Auntie, you are fighting with Uncle, not with me. What did I do wrong?" Nico looked at Anya with an innocent face. "When you needed my help to register your perfume, I stepped in myself. I also helped you sell your flowers at the company. Why are you so cruel to me?"
"You are also working with Aiden. He wants my mother's flower garden. Do you know?" Anya was not stupid. she knew Nico would know this too. After all, Nico was also a member of the Atmajaya Group and his position in the company was quite high. He must have known all projects carried out by his company.
"Auntie, the construction project could not be started because the Atmajaya Group could not get your mother's park. But my uncle took over the project after that. I don't know how he got around that problem. He was even kidnapped for taking care of the eviction problem. After that, because of an accident that happened to my uncle, the project was temporarily suspended and is now starting again," Nico explained.
"The project is back on track because Aiden has secured my mother's garden as collateral! As long as I can't pay all my debts, I won't be able to get the garden back. He will level my mother's garden!" Anya screamed angrily. "Do you dare say that you don't know?"
"Auntie, do you think Uncle will really do it? Hurting your heart just for the company's project?" Nico didn't answer Anya's question and instead replied with another question.
"What can't Aiden do? Aiden was willing to get engaged to Natali just to get the land for his company's project. Once he was successful, he immediately called off the engagement. It's the same with my marriage now. And you, weren't you also forced to get engaged to Natali for the sake of your family's company?" Anya said with a great emotion.
Nico wasn't happy to hear that. "Auntie, there seems to be a misunderstanding. The land of the Atmajaya Group company currently belongs to Deny. When Deny was down, many people tried to take the opportunity and wanted to buy the land cheaply. My grandfather valued the relationship between the Atmajaya Family and the Tedjasukmana Family so he bought the land at a price that was not too low so Deny could rise from his slump. We didn't even make a profit at all!"
"Do you think I will believe?" Anya snorted and poured beer into her glass once again.
"Auntie may not believe it, but all I say is the truth. You can check it out if you want. As for why my Uncle broke his engagement to Natali, didn't you already know everything? If my Uncle really wanted Aunty's garden, he would have grabbed it a long time ago. Why did he have to wait until now?" Nico kept on babbling as he ate.
His hands unconsciously continued to take the food in front of him. It took a lot of energy to explain this increasingly complicated misconception.
Tara tried to stop him. "Stop eating! This food is expensive. I also want to eat!"
"Boss, give me a few more servings!" Nico ordered. How could he stop eating? He could run out of energy if he didn't eat.
He stood leaving the table to get the food he had just ordered, letting Anya and Tara talk alone.
Anya thought about Nico's words while eating quietly. "Do you have a drawing of the building project?"
"I have it. Harris sent it to me," Tara then gave her cellphone to Anya.
Anya shook her head that felt dizzy. She'd only had a few bottles, but why was she already this drunk?
She immediately enlarged the picture on Tara's cellphone and studied it carefully. She found that her mother's garden was not in the picture.
"Anya, Aiden might have been insincere when he married you, but did he ever do anything to hurt you? He helped your mother to recover. He helped you to achieve your goals. He even changed the design of this project just for you. He didn't want the garden. Doesn't that mean Aiden cares for you?" Tara said.
"Even though he didn't hurt me, he still lied to me. Isn't that the same as hurting my heart?" Anya replied bitterly. "Ten years ago, my mother was framed by a colleague. She was injured, disabled and even lost her sense of smell. She could no longer work as a parfumeur like her dream. Aiden is the son of that person. The son of my mother's enemy."
"I don't understand. Isn't your mother's companion Imel?" Tara asked, confused.
"Aiden is Imel's son. He is Ivan. He changed his name, lied to me and married me. Not only does he want my mother's garden, he also wants the perfume formula my mother created ten years ago," Anya said angrily. She raised her glass and swallowed it all at once until she coughed.
Tears flowed from her eyes, not sure if it were because of her sore throat from choking or because her heart ached for the betrayal of the man she loved.
…
Aiden observed Anya from a distance. He didn't dare leave Anya alone so he followed her. Aiden couldn't rest easy when Anya wasn't by his side, not to mention she was emotionally unstable like this.
He wouldn't be able to forgive himself if something happened to Anya…
"Sir, Madam is very angry. Don't go to her first. Let Mr. Nico and Doctor Tara calm her down. Doctor Tara also tried to persuade her," Harris said.
"Have someone go over there and warn the people at the table next to Anya. Tell them to look away and not to look at my wife's legs," Aiden coldly said.
Even at times like this, he didn't want people to put their eyes on the woman he loved...